Easter Blessings

Today has been a remarkable day, and it's only 8:30 in the morning!

Tony and I went to the Easter Vigil at church last night, and so were not going to go to mass this morning.  However, I didn't want to just sleep in on Easter morning, so we had planned to hike up Quarry Hill and have our own little sunrise service.  The sunrise would occur at around 6:55 am, so we left the house by 6:30 and drove up there.  We were surprised along the way by how many cars seemed to be following us.  When we got to the parking lot, to our great surprise and amazement, there was a bagpiper, in full Scottish regalia, playing!  As we got out of the car, we realized that there must be some kind of organized service going on.  We joined some of the other folks who were gathering, and introduced ourselves.  They explained that they were from a Congregationalist church in Rochester, and that they do this every year.  Usually they hike up to the cemetery in the park, left from the state hospital days around the turn of the 20th century, but today, because of all the mud, ice, and snow, they decided it was too treacherous to attempt.  So we stayed in the parking lot.  Around 6:45 they handed out bulletins, and the simple service began.  There was the Gospel reading from John, several Easter hymns (some accompanied by bagpipe), and a prayer litany.  Tony and I felt that this was God surprising us with an Easter blessing that we could not have predicted or planned, and it was GOOD.  And very cold.

When we returned home, Tony took a hot shower to warm up while I made breakfast.  I had bought a tube of crescent rolls at Aldi the other day, and I decided to make cinnamon-sugar pastries out of them.  I unrolled the dough, spread each triangle with butter, then sprinkled on a cinnamon/sugar mixture.  Then I rolled each up into something that looked kind of like the Pope's hat, sprayed them with cooking spray, and sprinkled on some more sugar.  Into the oven at 350 for about 11 minutes, they were perfect.  The butter melted and sort of fried the bottoms, while the middles were buttery and just a little gooey and fluffy, while the tops were crusty with sugar.  I think they were even better than the Pillsbury Grands cinnamon rolls with frosting that my family eats at Christmas.  They were smaller, somewhat healthier without all that frosting, and much easier to eat.  I'm declaring them a win.

A Modest Proposal

On September 2, 2012, Tony H. Miller asked me to marry him.  I said yes.  Here is our story.

Door County, Part Two: The Happy Birthday Edition

This morning dawned bright, clear, and cool.  LR and I went for a three mile walk while SB made French toast and bacon, which LR had requested in honor of her birthday.  While we were walking, we saw

Flowers

Spiderwebs

Wet plants

 We returned to the suite and before we ate breakfast, we sang

Happy Birthday (number 1).

Door County, Part One: The Arrival

This weekend, to help celebrate LR's birthday, she, SB, and I went to Door County, WI.  I have never been here before, but they had, and my parents have, and my boyfriend has, and they all have said it is a beautiful place.  Having been here for about four hours, I can totally agree.

FLYING!!!

My good friend N got me a flying lesson for my birthday, back in September.  We couldn't get it scheduled until this past Sunday due to weather and conflicts, but we finally did it, and it was AMAZINGLY AWESOME.  N took some great photos, to which I will now subject you.

It was pretty cold outside on the ground.  Nice and warm in the plane, though.

From head to heart

This weekend, I:
went to the farmer's market for the first time this season
attended and sang in a funeral
visited a baby boy
watched the sun set over a lake
and finally, cried.

Snowshoeing

Yesterday, rather spontaneously, I drove down to Cannon Falls to go snowshoeing.  A friend from church lives there, and has shoes she said I could borrow.  I happen to love that area, and am starting to get tired of suburbia.  Maybe I'll move there someday.

 

Not-So-Random Acts of Kindness

The past few days have really helped me believe in the goodness of humanity.  We had about a foot and a half of snow on Saturday-- much more at one time than we are accustomed to.  It was declared a snow emergency, everything was canceled, and some roads are still not cleared of snow.  The parking lot at my apartment is one of those places.  On Saturday, I stayed inside all day until about 7pm, when I decided to go out and see how badly my car was buried, and try to dig it out so I wouldn't have to Sunday morning before church.  I found a shovel near the entrance to my building, so I borrowed it.  I had been working for fifteen minutes or so, getting totally absorbed in the work, insulated by my hat, scarf, and hood, when suddenly a voice behind me says, "Digging out?"

I think I jumped and perhaps yelped in surprise.  It was the guy who (I think) lives above me and works maintenance on the building.  He offered to help me finish moving the GIANT drift of snow, and as he is taller and stronger than me, was finished much quicker than I would have been.  It was very kind of him, especially considering that he said he had been shoveling snow all day.

Sunday morning, having already dug out (or so I thought), I went to get the car out.  But I realized that digging out my own car was not enough; there was a single set of tire ruts to drive in, but getting into them was another matter.  To back out of my parking space enough to clear the huge piles of snow on either side, and then turn around enough to get going the right way, required more space than was there.  Even with four-wheel drive, I got stuck in the snowbank.  So I went to find the shovel and dig out again.  Who should be using it but the same guy from last night, having the same problem with his car that I was having?  He was trying to get out to buy some gas for the snowblower, so he wouldn't have to shovel all day again.  So I helped him dig out and pushed the car while he gunned the engine, and he finally got going.  Then he helped me dig out and get going the right way.

Later on Sunday, I went church again for the rehearsal for the evening service.  When I got there, I realized that I couldn't get into the parking lot my usual way, because the city snow plows had shed snow about two feet deep blocking the entrance.  So after I found the other entrance clear, I parked, got a shovel from the narthex, and started clearing the snow.  There was a lot of it, and it was taking a while.  I was taking a short breather, when I realized that there was a car behind me, coming out of the parking lot.  I turned, and it was an older couple in a big SUV-- with a plow on the front.  The man got out and said, "Can we help you with that?"  I said, "Yes, please!"  They proceeded to clear the entrance, saving me at least half an hour of hard work.  As they were leaving, I asked if they were members of the church.  They said no.  I asked for their name, so we (the church) could properly thank them, and they wouldn't give it!  Just said they were "two angels, passing by".  So sweet.

Then today, before work, I stopped by the apartment office because my heat hasn't been working.  They said they'd take a look at it while I was at work.  Then I went to Target to buy my own shovel-- figured it might come in handy.  Then after work, around 6pm, it did!  I was about to head out to do some errands, and I saw an older man trying to drive out of a snowy parking space he had backed into.  His tires were spinning and he was not moving.  I offered to dig him out with my (brand new) shovel.  Tried that a while, still wasn't moving.  Then I tried pushing.  Still nothing.  Then we switched; he pushed, and I drove.  Finally, I put his car in first gear and we were able to rock it out of the snow.  Hooray!

THEN, when I was home again after my errands, I found the notice on my door saying they had been in to look at the heater.  Turns out there's something wrong, but they're not sure exactly what it is, so in the meantime, they gave me a space heater.  As if that wasn't enough, a little while later the friendly maintenance man stopped by and made sure I was okay, and explained what the problems might be and how/when they might get fixed.  Again, very kind and thoughtful of him.

All of this to say, Minnesota is a great place to live if you want friendly neighbors and the opportunity to "pay it forward".  It's hard to say whether this is Christmas Cheer, or Holiday Spirit, or just the natural human urge to band together against the elements, but it's a pretty amazing feeling-- that you're a part of a network of people who don't even know each other, but support each other all the same.

A New Venture

I have become a direct sales consultant for a major producer of cosmetics and skin care products.  To avoid any potential issues with copyright, I will refrain from mentioning its name here, but it is an anagram for yak army, if that helps at all.  [Note: if you try to guess (and really, it's not that hard) in the comments, I will neither confirm nor deny your hypotheses.]

This is a very strange move for me, I know.  I rarely wear makeup, and I just started using Yak Army products two months ago, tops.  But I really like them, and my friend and recruiter A convinced me that the product itself is not the most important thing in this business: making my dreams happen is.

A asked me what I would change about my current situation, if I could.  It was incredibly easy to answer that question: I would be living in my own house, on a small farm, raising chickens, having a large garden, and living with a dog.  Easy.  But lately I've felt stagnated in moving towards that dream; my day job, while fun and rewarding, doesn't pay enough to meet all my expenses, let alone save up for a house.  And with more debt and student loans on the way, it sometimes seems like I'll never get there.

Enter Yak Army.  Being a consultant means that I run my own business.  Through this venture, I will learn how to manage expenses, tax write-offs, etc., as well as hopefully bring in a few extra dollars.  If nothing else, I'll at least get the products that I love at half price.

But this whole experience has helped me put my financial goals into perspective.  First, pay off my credit card bills.  Second, pay off student loans.  Third, buy a house.  I realize there are probably some steps missing, but that's okay.  For now, it feels good to have priorities in order, and to know that the ultimate goal is actually on the list.

My Day

When I left for church this morning at 7:50, my parking lot was a giant sheet of ice.  I felt about ninety years old trying to walk across it with three-inch steps.  Scraping it off my car was an adventure; it's hard to get any leverage when your feet keep slipping out from under you.

Finally made it to church, sang with the choir twice, bought some children's books at the Scholastic book fair, went home.  Had leftover pizza for lunch, doodled around on the computer for awhile, called my mom and got to talk to my grandpa, found out I didn't have to work at the evening service, took a nap.

After the evening service was over, LR came over to help make dinner for LH and SB.  We cooked chicken in a pan on the stove, made pasta, mixed frozen veggies, and sauce.  The sauce was the only thing that involved any creativity; it was chopped onions and peppers sauteed, then with canned tomatoes, cream of chicken soup, parsley, and oregano added and heated through.  Came out pretty good.  LH and SB joined us, we ate, then had some leftover crockpot cake.  Then the four of us played Cranium, which I own but never had the chance to play before.  LH and I won.  Then we played Disney Apples to Apples.  I have to say I prefer regular A2A, because of the more varied nouns and more interesting adjectives.  We finished up the night by playing "Do you want to buy an Apple?", which is "Do you want to buy a duck?" using Apples to Apples cards.

Then my guests had to leave because we all have to work early tomorrow.  I'm going in at 7:30 (UGH!) and staying until 5:30 (UGH!).  Long day.

Tomato Tasting

Yesterday, S and I drove down to Seed Savers Farm near Decorah, Iowa.  It was a long drive (almost three hours), but totally worth it.  The weather was gorgeous and cool-- just the first hint of fall.  The tomato tasting event was scheduled to start at 1pm, and we got there just a little after noon.  We had some time to tour the gardens.

Several varieties of sunflowers:

Giant sunflowers!!!

Some really tall corn, beans, herbs, and squash, among other things.

Is this a squash or a gourd?  I don't know.

Near where the tomato tasting would take place, there was a small folksy band, complete with violin/fiddle, accordion, guitar, and drums.

The band.

(Also many loud children playing in the sandbox and slide.)

Then, the tasting started.  Somewhere around 40 varieties of tomatoes, ranging in size from less than a centimeter in diameter to about six inches, and in colors including yellow, orange, pink, red, purple, black, green, and multicolored.

So many tomatoes!!!

At the head of the line, where they handed out tasting comment forms, pens, and seed saving tips, there was also this cool display:

I don't know this woman's name, but she was very friendly and helpful.

Some of my favorites were the Black Krim, a dark tomato from Russia with a really strong, sweet flavor, but not the typical sweetness you expect with tomatoes.  I can't even describe it, but I liked it.  I also enjoyed Dr. Wyche's Yellow (sweet and tangy) and the Velvet Red (a previous winner, cherry-sized).  At the end of the table, there were ballots to vote for your favorite; I voted for the Black Krim (which, incidentally, sounds like a great name for a pirate ship).

After we tasted, we took the 45 minute hayride around some of the outlying fields.  Our guide, Heidi, was very friendly and knowledgeable.

On the hayride, we got to see the compost heap (covered with blue fabric/tarp) and the diseased compost heap (well away from the usable one, not covered, smelled like compost).  It was very interesting to see the fields where they grow their crops-- those that are in danger of cross-pollinating with wild varieties are kept in tents to ensure the seeds will propagate true.  The tomatoes do not face this hazard.  This year, they're growing five varieties of tomatoes-- so many that they have them grow up fences instead of stakes.  It looks like a vineyard out there.

Surprisingly, Seed Savers sells absolutely zero produce.  All their crops are used for seed, which I suppose makes sense if your name is "Seed Savers".  But S and I wondered whether the staff ever just go out in the field for a snack.  At any rate, that's a lot of seeds to extract.

The hayride, while fun and informative, was not nearly as long or involved as S or I would have hoped.  But that left us time to explore a few last areas.  First, the livestock.  Seed Savers keeps heritage poultry and cattle:

This guy was making lots of noise.  Can you see the horns?

Sorry I couldn't get a better photo; these guys look crazy.  They've got big fluffy "headdresses" of feathers.  S didn't get why you would want a chicken to have that.

There was a nice herb garden near the visitor's center, as well as a giant old barn.

That's the visitor's center in the back.

View of the herb garden from the barn loft.

Finally, S and I took a short walk around the grounds.  There are some really neat trails to take around the property; alas, we only had time for the little loop around the pond.

All in all, a very fun trip.  Even driving there and back was fun-- we got to go through a bunch of tiny little towns we'd never heard of, and see all the pretty, just-on-the-brink-of-fall fields.

MN State Fair

Disclaimer: all of the photos below, unless noted otherwise, are from www.mnstatefair.org and do not belong to me.


Yesterday, I went to the State Fair with my friend S.  Despite living in this state since 2005, I had never gone before.  It was a very fun time, and I would definitely go again next year.


First, we went to the Heritage exhibits.  Some nice pottery and other crafts; some really strange kitschy stuff.  After that, we went to the livestock exhibits.  It was 4-H Llama Day, so we toured the stalls with kids brushing llamas.

These llamas look particularly happy.

I was surprised at how intelligent these guys looked.  I was expecting the general interest level of a cow, and instead they were curious like goats.  Several watched us intently as we walked by.


Next, we went into the Swine Barn.  Pigs are big!  And, somewhat sadly, they look like meat hung on a skeleton.  Minnesota's Largest Boar was especially disturbing.

Credit: roadfood.com

The sow and her piglets were cute, but also a little sad in that she's kept in that "sow stall", which keeps her from squishing, eating, or otherwise killing her little ones, for 21 days.  During that time, she doesn't get up at all.  She can't even turn over.  Sad.

We weren't able to go into the horse barn because it was being cleaned and prepared for a new set of horses to move in.

These were all over the place around the agricultural section of the fair.

There weren't any shows going on in the Colisseum while we were there, but it was a pretty cool space anyway.

Note the size of these cows-- significantly smaller than their handlers.  This is what I thought a cow looked like.

In the Cattle Barn, I learned that full-grown cows are HUGE.  Like whoa.

These are Jersey Cows, which, although still XXL, are not as large as...

Holstein cows.  Credit: www.fwi.co.uk

Holy cow!  (Ahahaha...)


Our last stop in the agriculture area was the Miracle of Birth center.  I found this building to be a little silly.  Basically, they get as many pregnant animals there as they can, and hope that some of them might give birth during the fair.  While we were there, there were a large number of people watching a pig give birth.  We didn't feel like fighting the crowd to get close enough to see, so we wandered around and looked at all the other babies.

Lamb-lings!

Now, just so you don't worry, yes, we did look at other things besides animals.  But for me, that was the most fun part.  We ate authentic fair food: fried cheese curds.  We wandered through the international bazaar (but didn't buy anything).  We saw the Horticulture exhibit, including the largest pumpkins:

You could totally make a child's carriage out of one of those.  Cinderella, anyone?

Man, that would be a cool Halloween costume.  Hollow out one of those monsters into a carriage, dress your toddler girl-child up as Cinderella, and have your dog pull the carriage.  Awesome.


Just as we were leaving the Horticulture exhibit, we were halted in our progress towards cheese curds by the daily parade.

There were several high school marching bands, and they were good.  Certainly better trained and more disciplined than our marching band was, although in my opinion their playing left something to be desired.


Once the parade was over, we found cheese curds and walked back to S's apartment.  I was very glad to sit down for awhile.

Plans

I just registered to attend the Minnesota Homeschoolers' Alliance annual conference in New Brighton on Saturday, September 25th.  For readers who don't know me, I should point out that
1. I was not homeschooled; I was a (mostly) successful graduate of entirely mainstream public school
2. I have no children of my own, nor any specific plans to obtain them in the near future, because
3. I am not married, nor in a relationship likely to lead to marriage (okay, let's be honest: or any kind of relationship at all).

All of this might lead you to wonder why I would attend a conference on homeschooling.  As someone entering the teaching profession, I have come to dislike many of the precepts that public schools, and public school teaching, entail.  The emphasis on testing, especially, has (or originally had) a noble goal of making schools and teachers accountable for student learning, but this goal has been buried beneath a lot of finger-pointing ("Poor student performance is the teachers' fault!" "It's the parents' fault!" "It's the government's fault!") and the asinine and short-sighted idea of attaining "proficiency".

Anyway, specifics aside, the system is broken.  I do not want to be a part of a broken system; I'd be happy to try to help fix it, but I think it is difficult to get into a public teaching position without at least pretending to support the system, and then once in, it is tempting to support the status quo that pays one's salary.  I have been looking into alternatives to public school teaching, including charter schools, private schools (although these have their own issues), TRiO programs, and, yes, homeschooling.

I don't know how I could be of use to the homeschooling community, but I'd like to offer my services.  I would also like to see if anyone has done any thinking/writing/experimenting with incorporating homeschool learning and teaching styles into conventional classrooms.  That would be my ideal task; the students who most need our help are those whose family situations do not allow the possibility of homeschooling.  Those are the students I want to help become lovers of learning.

So, if anyone reading this will also be at MHA, leave a note and maybe we'll meet up.  If you're not going, but have some advice or insight on the whole "public schooling in the form of or modeled after homeschooling" idea, I'd love to hear it.

The Perseids: Part II

Last night was a no-go.  Tornado watch in effect and thunderstorms out the wazoo.  Not ideal for meteor-watching.

The Perseids: Part I

I drove out toward Hastings to find a spot dark enough to see some meteors.  There's a park there, Schaar's Bluff, which of course was closed since it was 10:30pm.  But I thought it might be really dark.

Alas, it was only sort of dark.  I could see the Milky Way, but not as brilliantly as I'd hoped.  The Rosemount oil refinery lights, and the light pollution from Hastings and the twin cities, were still visible.  But I did manage to see several meteors, including one that was greenish in color and shot all the way across the sky, lasting a nice long while.  I'm hoping that tomorrow will be even better; I'm going to go up to Stillwater (north of the TC) and meet a friend to watch some more.

And then, on the way home, I almost hit a skunk.  I think I may have run over its tail-- there was a slight bump, but the critter managed to hurry away, off of the exit ramp.  Not, however, without first spraying my car with noxious scent.  Ugh.

This guy: not the skunk I almost hit.